Weekend Leadership Reading: 3/29/19

Weekends are time when things slow down a little. Your weekend shouldn’t be two more regular work days. That’s a sure road to burnout. Take time to refresh yourself. Take time for something different. Take time for some of that reading you can’t find time for during the week.

Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms. This week there are articles about innovation in corporations.

“BCG’s latest innovation survey surfaces some big trends. Strong innovators are extending their edge over weaker rivals by embracing AI—in their products and services as well as in how they create them. They’re also increasingly looking to platforms and ecosystems as a way to benefit from external data, ideas, and capabilities. And there are some interesting shifts in this year’s roster of the 50 most innovative companies.”

“In a study of C-level executives at 840 companies from eight countries and 14 industries with revenues over $500 million, we identified a small number that appear to be bucking the trend. Their secret: They strive to innovate in ways that would have a major impact on markets and society, and they revamped how their organizations pursued innovation and brought their capabilities together in a single ‘architecture.'”

“Indeed, one of the most universal shifts in the innovation sector in recent years has been the growth of large teams in all areas of research and development, while solitary inventors, researchers, and small teams have all been on the decline. This fundamental shift is critical for science and innovation policy, as it points to large teams as optimal engines for tomorrow’s largest advances.”

“Innovation is something that everyone says they want to do, but it seems increasingly clear that this desire is often rather superficial. For instance, recently I wrote about a new study from Harvard Business School showing that innovation is rarely a top priority for executives. Indeed, just 30% placed it in their top 3 issues to focus on in the coming years.”

“You simply must tip your hat to Geoffrey Moore and others who created the concept of the ‘whole product.’ I’ve written about this concept several times, and I raise it again because the underlying ideas are about to become really important in innovation circles. If you haven’t read Crossing the Chasm or aren’t quite familiar with what a ‘whole product’ is, then it may make sense to go and read up. When you are done, come back and let’s continue the conversation about why whole products are about to become a lot more interesting.”

“The first thing I tell them is that there has been no definitive research that has found that any specific personality type contributes to innovation. In fact, in my research I have found that there is not even a particular kind of company. If you look at IBM, Google and Amazon, for example, you’ll find that they innovate very differently.”